Indicator for duplicate whist.



2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Patented Aug. a, |899.

C. A. WATSON.

INDICATOR FOB DUPLICATE WHIST.

(Application filed Dec. 1, 1898.)

(No Modem WEST' wss;

TNC NOHRIS PETERS -.f'lTo-UTNO., WASHINGTON, D. C.

Snar- MRT H /Ymfrr/ W/TNESSES y110.6311387. Patented Aug. 8, |899. c.A.l wATsoN.

INDICATOR FOR DUPLICATE WHIST.

(Application led Dec. 1, 189B.)

(No Model.)

2 Sheets-Sheet 2` Gore, .Nkmbex Numa Ori l 41|) A from/EY.

NITED- STATES' 'oALviN A. wATsoN,

.PATENT OFFICE.

on NEW YORK, N. Y.

INDICATOR FOR DUPLICATE WHIST.l

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters'Patent No. 630,78*?, dated August8, 1899.

Applicationiiled December 1, 1898.

To all whom, t may concern: Be it known that' I, CALVIN A gWATsoN, ofthe city and State of New York, have in# vented certain new and usefulImprovements in Indicators forDuplicate Whist andother Games, ofwhich'the following is a description, referring to the accompanyingdrawings, which form part ofthis specification.

While particularly intended for duplicate whist, the invention will withor without slight modification be readily adapted to a great many othervgames, particularly games of cards belonging to the whist family.

The primary object of the invention is to facilitate the correctdealing, arrangement of the hands, selection'of the proper' pack, and--redistribution of theca'rds and hands in the proper order and to ltheproper players in the duplicate or return series. V-hile all thefeatures of the invention mutually contribute to this result, some ofthe features of the invention may be utilized without the othersas, forinstance, would be the case if it were only necessary to use a singlepack in playing only two hands. y

For the sake of clearness I will describe my invention just as I applyitto duplicate whist. Its use for other games will be readily understoodfrom this.

In the drawings, Figurel illustrates four markers for the rst of anumber of packs of cards# Fig. 2 shows the corresponding markers for thesecondpack. Figs. 3, 4L, and 5 similarly show the markers for the third,fourth, and fifth packs, there being of course any desirable number ofpacks used. Fig. 6 shows the backs for two of the markers of the firstpack, the other two being similar, but without the words Dealand Lead.Fig. 7 similarly shows the backs'of markers for pack No. 2. Figs. 8 and9 show modifications corresponding to Figs. 6 and 7.1 Letters replacethe numerals l and 2,res'p`ecti vely. Fig. 10 illustrates card-cases forthe'first and second packs. Fig. Y V11 'shows a modification. Fig. l2illustrates thescore-card to be used in combination .with my markers.

Throughout the drawings similar reference letters and figures indicatesimilar features of the invention.

Considering, first, a single pack only,which I will call No. 1: In agame of whist the Serial No. 6985006. (No model.)

cardsare dealt to the four players-thirteen to each player. Under myinvention each player is also given a marker, which is pref'- erably inthe form of 'a card M of such size as to projectslightly beyond theedges of the playing-cards. The face of these markers and preferably thebacks also'show characters or colors to indicate several differentfacts. First, the number of the pack or deal is indicated. This may beconveniently done by a corresponding numeral, as is shown in Figs. l, 2,3, 4, 5,6, and 7, or by-letters,as on/the backs ofthe' markers shown'inFigs-8 and 8. Secondly,'th'e position of the player of the hand towhicheach markervbelongs is indicated by some characteigwhich maybe'conveniently a heart, a spade, a diamond, and a club, respec tively,the heart and the diamond being colored alike to indicate that thecorresponding players are partners a'nd are placed opposite each other,while the spade and club are colored alike, but dierently from the heartand diamond, to indicate theV other two partners. Thirdly, the dealerand the lead are indicated by appropriate characters. y

By the terni character as used in this specification I mean to designateand include numerals, letters, arbitrary or pictorial signs, orcombinations of single characters or signs. By the term color I mean toinclude black and white, together with shaded surfaces made with linesor other designs of two or more colors. For the purpose of indicatingthe use of colors I have in the accompanying drawings employedVertical'lining to indicate gules or red and horizontal lining toindicate black vor blue azure, adopting these two colors for the simpleand obvious reason that red and black are the colors usually employed oncards to denote the different suits.

On the face of the markers shown in the iirst five Iigures I. have usedhearts, spades, diamonds, and clubs to indicate the four players. I haveused numbers to indicate the successive packs or deals,'andIvhaveim'arked the words Deal and Lead on the respective markers foreach pack, so as to indicate who is to deal and who is to lead. Whatevercharacter and color be employed for these IOO tion when it is put in useis the same. This operation is as follows:

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The cards of the first pack having been dealt in the usual manner andthe markers having been distributed to the four players, the thirteentricks are played as usual in whist, each player retaining his owncards, so as to preserve them for the duplicate or return game. Afterthe thirteen tricks have been played the four hands are gathered up withthe respective markers and laid aside. The markers projecting slightlyfrom the pack serve to separate the four hands of thirteen cards each,and when the duplicate or return games are played the four hands aremerely separated by their markers and distributed to the four players.The partners that had the hands marked by hearts and diamonds originallywill receive in the duplicate or return game the cards marked by spadesand clubs, or equivalent characters or colors if another means ofdistinguishing has been chosen instead of the characters and colorsillustrated in the accompanying drawings. Of course any number of packsmay be used. If ve packs are used, with ve sets of markers, as shown inFigs. l to 5, then of course the five packs are used successively andsuccessively laid aside to be used a second time in the return orduplicate games. It will be seen from Figs. l to 5 that the markers ofthe second pack show that the deal goes to the player who led with therst pack, his hand being indicated by the spade on both markers.Similarly the second hand (indicated by a diamond in the markers of theiirst pack, Fig. l) takes the lead, as indicated by the diamond 0n themarkers of the second pack, Fig. 2. Similarly in the successive packs.Therefore taking any one player-such, for instance, the player at thenorth end-and assuming that he dealt the irst pack, and thereforereceived the marker showing the heart andthe wordDeal,he has only tomake sure that he receives the marker showing a heart in each successivedeal in the original series of deals to insure his dealing, leading,the., in proper rotation. After each pack has been used it is laid asideforthe return or duplicate games. Vhen the duplicate or return games areplayed, the partners indicated by the heart and diamond markers in theoriginal games will receive the spade and club markers, with thecorresponding hands in the return games, each pack being usedsuccessively, as before. In order to facilitate the selection of thepacks, I prefer to have peculiar cases made for them. For the iirst packin which the deal is indicated by a heartmarker, Fig. l, I provide acase having a corresponding index either by color or character,preferably both. In Fig. l0 I show cases for the first and second packs,that for the iirst being red in whole or in part, that for the secondbeing blue or black to indicate the fact that the deal goes to theplayer indicated by the spade-marker in Fig. 2. The numerals l and 2 inFig. 10 or the letters A and B in Fig. l1 indicate the numbers of thepacks to which .heart-marker in Fig. l.

the respective cases belong. By this means when the return set of gamesis played the color on the case will indicate which partners are to havethe deal for that pack. I furthermore provide characters or emblems onthe score-card, so that the players have to remember absolutely nothing,the score-card itself indicating, in conjunction with the markers,exactly how the cards are to be distributed for each game in both theoriginal and return sets. This I accomplish by marking the column of onepair of partners for the original games with hearts and diamonds or anyother corresponding indicating color or character and the column of theother partners with spades and clubs, reversing these colors orcharacters for the return or duplicate scores, as shown in Fig. 12. Theuse of such a scorecard, in conjunction with the markers and card-casesdescribed, is extremely simple. Take, for example, the iirst and secondpacks in the original series of games: The case numbered l shows theindex color red, and the red markers are accordingly distributed to thetwo partners whose score is to be kept in the column marked with adiamond and heart, while the other two markers go to their 0pponents.Red has the deal, as shown by the After the game has been played and thecards properly separated by the markers have been put back in the casethe second case No. 2 is taken,and as this shows the color black or bluecorresponding to clubs and spades the corresponding players are to deal,and the marker showing the spade also indicates the dea-l, as shown inFig. 2, and so on throughout the successive packs, the deal passing inregular rotation and no mistake being possible so long as thecorrespondence between the color of the card-case, which is also thecolor of the marker indicating the deal, and the color indicated on thescore-card for each pair of partners is preserved. When, however, theirst pack is to be dealt in the first return game, its color shown onthe case, which is red, indicates that it is to be dealt by the partnersopposed to those who originally dealt it, and this is indicated by theheart and diamond at the top of the return-column score, Fig. l2.

Instead of making the backs of the markers shown in Figs. l to 5identical with the faces, as might very well be done, I may Vary thedesign by simply putting circles with the number of the pack, with thecolor of the respective heart, spade, diamond, or club shown on itsface, and the word Deal or Lead where these are proper. Two such backsare indicated in Fig. (i. Two of those for the second pack are indicatedin Fig. 7. Figs. 8 and 9 show the employment of letters instead ofnumerals to indicate the packs.

It will be seen from the foregoing that the principles of my inventionadmit of considerable latitude in application, an almost endless varietyof designs with arbitrary indicating characters or symbols beingpossible.

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For instance, gold and silver or other metallic surfaces may be used asthe equivalent of colors.

In order, therefore, to specify the characteristic features of myinvention in accordance with the statute, I append hereto the followingclaims:

I. In combination as indicators for duplicate whist and other games, aplurality of cases showing characters to indicate numerical order, and aplurality of markers forindicating hands or divisions of the pack, andadapted to iit between the hands in such cases, substantially as setforth.

2. In combination as indicators for duplicate whist and other games, aplurality of cases showing numerical order or succession to identify theseveral packs, and showing also partners or sides, and a plurality ofmarkers showing the several players hands, and adapted to be fittedbetween the hands in the said cases, substantially as set forth.

3. In combination as indicators for duplicate whist and other games, aplurality of cases showing numerical order or succession to identify theseveral packs, and showing colors inv a corresponding order of rotation,and a plurality of markers for each of the said cases, adapted to befitted therein between the hands, the markers of each set showing colorsor characters indicative of the several hands or players, substantiallyas set forth.

4. In combination as indicators for duplicate whist and other games, aplurality of cases showing numerical order or succession to identify theseveral packs, and showing colors in a correspondingly regular order ofrotation, and a plurality of markers for each of the said cases, adaptedto be iitted therein between the hands, the markers of each set showingcolors or characters indicative of individual hands or players, andbeing also indicative of the case to which they belong, substantially asset forth.

5. As an indicator forduplicate whist and other games and for use incoperation with a plurality of markers for indicating the hands ordivisions of one or more packs, a score-card provided with means forcorrespondingly indicating by colors or characters, the rotation ofdeal, substantiallyas set forth. f

6. As an indicator for duplicate whist and other games, and for use incooperation with a plurality of card-cases showing numerical order orsuccession, a score-card, marked or colored to indicate the rotation ofdeal,when said card-cases are used, substantially as set forth.

7. In combination in a set of markers for duplicate whist and othergames, a device upon each marker in color or character indicating thepack or case to which such marker belongs, and several different devicesin color or character upon several markers, indicating the respectiveplayers hands, substantially as set forth.

8. In combination in a set of markers for duplicate whist and othergames, a device on each such marker in color or character indicating thepack to which such marker belongs, and several different devices incolor or character upon the several markers indicating the respectiveplayers7 hands, and also a device in color or character on one or moreof the' markers to indicate the dealer7 subf stantially as set forth.

CALVIN A. WATSON.

Witnesses:

GEORGE I-I. SoNNEBoRN, HAROLD BINNEY.

